Even as Grant hauled her back around the corner of the hotel towards his squad car, we could still hear her vile words ringing out in the quiet street.
As soon as Sue was out of sight, Phil broke down and started weeping uncontrollably so I opened the front door of the hotel and hauled him inside.
Once in the lobby, the scene that met my eyes was pretty well what I expected. Yelling and running feet could be heard filtering down the stairs from the upper floors. Leonard, Stan and Liam all stood near the front desk area, one looking more weary than the next.
The only person who sparked to life at the sight of the two of us entering the building was Stan. He stood up to his full height of 5’6”, clenched his fists and with a look of rage in his face, came stomping over to us.
“Where’s my sister?” he demanded of Phil, getting right up in his face.
Phil ignored him, which enraged Stan further.
Grabbing Phil’s arm and shaking him, attempting to scare him, Phil was unimpressed and merely batted Stan away easily. Which surprised the hell out of me. Phil was no muscle man so this display of strength was surprising. He was taller than Stan by at least half a foot. Skinny too, but what muscles he had were pure strength because without any effort at all, and while handcuffed, he pushed Stan away, almost making him land on his ass on the floor.
“Leave me alone,” Phil said, allowing me to lead him to a chair on the quieter side of the lobby. He slumped down into it and turned his back on everyone in the lobby.
Stan dusted himself off and pretended he didn’t care to have his questions answered by Phil anyway, then slunk back to the front desk area.
Drawn by the commotion, Liam surged out of the office in our direction. Looking even more worse for wear, Liam rushed towards me.
The only good thing that Liam had going for him before I left Victoria was that his hair wasn’t all messed up. Sure his tie was askew, there were mustard stains on his suit jacket, and the bags under his eyes were truly impressive but at least his hair looked like it had been combed recently. Now his hair was completely frazzled too as he rushed towards me across the lobby.
Stepping a few feet away from Phil, I intercepted Liam so we could have a conversation.
“How goes it?” I asked.
“There’s no evidence that Stan helped with the robberies. Cora is going over all the hotel cameras. He appeared to be behind the front desk all night.”
“But he could’ve phoned Jimmy and Phil to let them know tonight would be a good night to pull the robberies?”
“Arnold’s checking the phone records,” Liam pointed at Phil. “What’s the story with him?”
“Him and Sue kidnapped me and were plotting to kill me. So you’ll need to charge them with that. Sue is outside with Grant Peterson, of the Landsend RCMP. I hear you got in touch with him?”
“Yeah I phoned him after we talked. Sounds like it’s a good thing I did.”
I nodded, patting him on the arm.
“Yes and thank you. So I assume you want to arrest Phil and Sue rather than Grant doing it? You don’t want the two different police jurisdictions slowing down the course of justice.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Liam started to say but was interrupted by Leonard storming over and standing next to us with his hands on his hips and his face the reddest I’d seen it yet.
“What is being done about all of this?” Leonard demanded, glaring at both of us.
“We’re working on it, sir. When we need to talk to you, we’ll let you know,” Liam said. “Please go wait over near the front desk again.”
“This is disturbing all of my guests,” Leonard said.
“I know, sir. It will all be over soon,” Liam said taking him by the elbow and walking him back over towards the front desk, muttering reassuring words as they walked.
I stared after them, lost in thought. Why did Leonard care this much? I mean sure, of course he would care about cops and robbers in his hotel. But why did he care THIS much? Especially considering he didn’t seem to care very much about anything that was happening in his hotel before all this blew up.
It would be good to get to the bottom of it, I thought. Leonard and I needed a little heart to heart. So when Liam returned, I pointed him in Phil’s direction then went to pay Leonard a visit.
It would have been nice to find a quiet spot to go over my notes and get all the facts straight in my mind, but as usual, there wasn’t time. A few thoughts were occurring to me though. Sue was using both Phil and Jimmy, getting them to work for her, robbing the hotel. Phil appeared to be oblivious to this but did Jimmy know he was being used? Maybe Sue planned to run away with him but perhaps Jimmy turned the tables and told Sue where to get off. Maybe Jimmy showed her the loot then dumped her, told her he was keeping it all for himself.
That would explain why she seemed to both love him and hate him at the same time. I had to have a nice little chat with Sue after I got finished talking to Leonard. Although judging by the sounds of screaming still going on outside of the hotel, I figured it would take a while before Sue was calm enough to have a conversation. I’d focus on Leonard for now.
By the time I reached him, I found Leonard pacing back and forth in the little office behind the front desk. Perfect. He seemed nicely wound up, all the better to interrogate him, I thought, as I shut the office door behind me.
“What are you doing here,” Leonard demanded. “Why aren’t you finding the killer?”
“We’re doing the best we can right now, Leonard. Why don’t you sit down for a minute and try to relax. You’ve been racing around non-stop since sunrise. At least that’s when I first saw you.”
“How am I supposed to relax when all of this crap is going on in my hotel? How is this relaxing?”
“I realize that but this is just your job, right? There’s no need for you to take it personally, right?”
“I’ve been doing this for ten years. When you’ve worked that long in one place, you tend to take things personally.”
“Yes, I totally understand that,” I said, trying to wave him towards a chair but he could not be deterred from his constant pacing. “So tell me Leonard, did you know about the robberies that were going on in your hotel?”
That question made him stop in his tracks but he remained silent.
“These criminals seem pretty comfortable around your hotel,” I continued. “How long has this been going on?”
The tips of Leonard’s ears started to turn red as his fists balled up at his sides while he turned to stare at me intensely.
“I didn’t know anything about it before last night,” he said.
“C’mon Leonard, don’t kid a kidder. It’s impossible that you didn’t know.”
His pacing started up again.
“I didn’t. I just focussed on my job. I did what I was paid to do. No one can expect any more than that.”
“What did it start out with first, things falling off a truck and not making it all the way into the kitchen? Then supplies started disappearing from the hotel?”
Leonard didn’t answer.
“When did they start going after the guests?”
Silence. I decided to try a different tactic.
“That Jimmy was a big guy. Intimidating, with all those muscles. And all those tattoos. Was he part of a gang? Had he been threatening you? It’d be frightening standing up to a guy like that, am I right?”
I watched Leonard’s face closely and realized I’d hit a bullseye. All the years of fear and intimidation played across his face but were replaced with a gleam in his eye as he straightened his shoulders and stood up taller.
“But look who’s the one left standing,” he said, puffing out his chest, a slight smile playing across his lips.
I’d seen that look before. More times than I cared to remember. The gloating. The triumph. The pride in a man at having struck down his mortal enemy. The look of a killer.
Hol
y crap. Leonard was the killer.
Chapter Thirteen
However, just like every killer I’d met before him, Leonard must have seen the realization in my eyes because he changed again. His guard went up and I could see the gears working in his brain as he calculated what to do next.
Some killers once they get into the gloating mode where they feel proud of what they’d done, you can’t get them to shut up about it. They’d confess to everything just to show you how clever they were at killing someone and almost getting away with it.
But Leonard was the other kind of killer. He was proud of what he’d done but realized he had to hide it. He wanted to get away with murder. By far, the more dangerous type of killer.
I could see the gears working in his head, calculating the best way for him to get out of this, the best way to escape.
“I’ve been here far too long. My shift ended hours ago,” he said, grabbing his coat off the hook on the back of the door. “I’ll introduce you to the day manager and you can keep her informed about what’s going on.”
Dammit, I thought. He can’t leave the building. I have to get him to confess.
“But we’re getting near the end of the case,” I said. “Don’t you want to know what happened?”
“I have to admit I’m curious. That’s why I stayed here so long but I’m exhausted, so I’m going home.”
He pulled open the office door and took a couple steps out the door.
Shit, I thought. He can’t leave. He has to confess because there is no proof other than my suspicions, based on thirty years of police work.
And who knows, he might decide to do a runner if he thinks we’re on to him. Some killers just get in their cars and disappear, never to be seen again. I think Leonard had the potential to be one of those.
I had to think fast. Which is when I saw it. The backpack still on the hook on the back of the door. It had been underneath Leonard’s jacket. Surely it was his. Why did he leave it there?
I snatched it off the hook and shook it a little. The slight jingling inside was all the proof I needed. I smiled and charged out the door of the office.
Leonard was halfway across the lobby and walking fast for the exit.
“Wait,” I yelled as I emerged from the hallway near the front desk.
Leonard pretended not to hear me and continued full steam for the front doors when suddenly one of them opened and Grant pushed Sue into the hotel in front of him.
“Wait, Leonard, you forgot something,” I said, holding his backpack out towards him while ‘accidentally’ upending it, so its contents spilled all over the lobby floor.
Tupperware and a water bottle fell out along with expensive watches and quite a lot of nice jewellery.
Everyone assembled nearby turned to stare at the contents of the backpack along with Leonard’s reaction to it.
“What are you doing with that stuff?” Sue demanded, looking at Leonard with shock.
“That’s not mine,” Leonard said, trying to back towards the front door but Grant blocked that exit.
“That’s your water bottle,” Sue said. “And your backpack. Of course it’s yours. What are you doing with all that loot? That was supposed to be on Jimmy. What are you doing with it?”
“I don’t know how it got there. Someone must have put it in my backpack without my knowing about it.”
It sounded like a viable excuse but the look on Leonard’s face gave him away. A poker face it was not and everyone in the room could tell he was lying.
“You did it!” Sue screamed. “You killed Jimmy!”
Breaking free from Grant’s grip, Sue charged the short distance across the lobby and kneed Leonard in the nuts. When he doubled over to the ground, she started kicking him savagely in the kidneys, getting a few kicks in before Grant hauled her away.
I reached Leonard and helped him up to a seated position.
“How could you do that? What is wrong with you?” Sue screamed.
“Yeah, I did it. And I’d do it again,” Leonard said. “That bastard Jimmy. He made my life a misery for years. All of you, with your schemes and your thieving ways.”
“You didn’t have to kill him,” Sue wailed, trying to wrench free from Grant.
“Yes, I did. It was him or me. And it definitely wasn’t going to be me. After all I put up with from these people,” Leonard said, pointing from Sue to Phil to Stan. “You know what they’d say. ‘Mind your business, Leonard.’ Then Jimmy would smack me in the head. Or they’d say, ‘Don’t be so nosey, Leonard.’ And Jimmy would punch me in the stomach. ‘Curiosity killed the cat Leonard.’ For the longest time they would just steal supplies from the hotel. Or food wouldn’t make it from the truck to the restaurant. Which was bad enough. But this time, to steal from the guests. That was the final straw. I couldn’t let that go on. That’s why I left my backpack there, so the jewellery could be returned to the guests. I don’t want it. I just wanted the robberies and the bullying to stop. That’s all.”
Leonard talked to me directly, blocking out the noise and distraction of everyone else in the lobby crowding in closer to hear what he had to say. He wanted to make sure that I knew the truth.
“Do you know how difficult it is to turn a blind eye? To not notice things? To turn off your curiosity? It’s impossible. So when I accidentally noticed Jimmy coming out of that hotel room with jewellery in his hand, it was the final straw. He ran at me and said, ‘You didn’t see nothing’ and was about to smack me in the head. Again. So I snapped and I grabbed him by the throat.”
“He was so surprised at how strong I am,” Leonard said, the gleam of pride coming back up in his eyes. “I’ve been working out lately. A lot.”
Lapsing into silence, I could tell that Leonard was reliving his moment of triumph over his archenemy. Something that would probably run through his mind a lot in the coming years. I put a hand under Leonard’s elbow, helping him up. Liam moved in closer at that point and got out a pair of handcuffs.
“I know I shouldn’t have done it,” Leonard said to me. “But I just couldn’t take it anymore. He was a scumbag. He deserved everything that happened to him.”
“Get a good lawyer.” I patted Leonard on the back. After thirty years on the job, sometimes it seemed like the killer wasn’t really the bad guy after all.
I was glad to see Cora emerge from the hallway near the front desk with Stan in tow, preventing him from making an escape out the service exit.
Watching the Victoria police go through the motions of arresting four different people, I retreated to a comfy chair in the corner of the room and watched the spectacle unfold. It’d been a long day and I was glad this crew of thieves and robbers were scooped off the street.
And what Leonard said made me feel better about my own flaw. It really is impossible to stop being curious. And why should I stop? Ignoring your instincts and not doing what’s right clearly leads to serious trouble. So it’s best to just follow your nose and do what needs to be done.
After Sue was arrested, Grant wandered over to me and we walked out to his cruiser together. There was still too much noise and confusion going on in the hotel at that moment to have any kind of conversation, so the calm and quiet out in the parking lot was a welcome relief.
When we turned the corner to the parking lot and saw, off in the distance, the sky pink and purple, with sunset not far off, you could have knocked me over with a feather.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. “Sunset already? Geez, what a day.”
“Is this your first day in Victoria?” Grant smiled but his eyes filled with sympathy, over the ruin of a cop’s holiday plans. Clearly he’d been in my shoes before.
I sighed and nodded, smiling back at him.
“A cop’s life,” I said. “Will I ever be able to retire?”
“I sincerely hope so, I don’t want this happening to me when I retire in a few years. Say, why don’t you come visit Landsend? We hardly
have any criminals. Only when people import them.”
“I might do just that,” I said. “As long as you promise it’ll be peaceful and quiet.”
Grant drew an X across his heart with his finger, then solemnly said, “I promise.”
“Well then I think I’ll come check it out. Now that I know where the road is.”
We laughed and watched the sunset, listening to the sounds of Sue yelling her head off somewhere in the far distance.
Epilogue
Sunset in Landsend cast a pinkish glow over all the houses in town, turning the blue houses a lovely purple colour, and the coral houses a luscious shade of rose. The white-walled town hall turned a lovely pale pink colour and even the door to the police station, which was in shadow, had a slight glow to it when a person approached to peer at the sign on the door.
With just enough shade to hide them from the view of onlookers and just enough light to accomplish their task, the person set to work on the sign, changing a couple numbers in the emergency contact phone number. With a black marker, it only took a few moments to change a three to an eight, and a one to a seven. When it was all done, the casual observer couldn’t tell anything had been changed at all.
A raven watched in silence until the person scurried away, then she let out a loud caw.
The next book in this cozy mystery series is
“Body in the Bay”
by Pamela Kenney
Below is the first chapter of “Body in the Bay”
for your reading pleasure.
I knew I was doomed the instant I looked at my double scoop ice cream cone. Everything was just too perfect.
The sun was shining in the cloudless blue sky. The temperature was a beautiful 25C. Soft Pacific breezes wafted in from the sparkling blue sea.
Victim in Victoria Page 6
